American Hi Fi

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

American Hi Fi

• Island

Straight out of the Cheap Trick school of guitar-throttling power pop, Boston-based American Hi Fi turn it up like a house on fire on this radio friendly debut disc.

The band is driven by singer/guitarist Stacy Jones, who spent much of his previous life behind the drums, playing with the likes of Letters to Cleo, Veruca Salt, and Aimee Mann. He wrote all of the songs here, many which were inspired by the painful breakup of the once-heralded Veruca Salt.

Jones has a penchant for smart melodies, packing them with guitar crunch and pushing the vocals up front. The slacker boyfriend anthem “Flavor of the Weak” has serious hit potential, and other cuts, like the drum thundering “Hi-Fi Killer” and the muscular set opener “Surround,” fall somewhere between Blink-182's punk and Everclear's mod-rock roar. The band's only drawback is an occasional tendency to fall into lumber-land (“My Only Enemy”) but most of what comes across here is a vibrant rush.